Mild winter has minimal effects of wildlife

It has been an unusual winter here in Sanders County and with only around six weeks of winter left the forecast seems to predict a continuous mild snow season with high temperatures leading into the spring season. What, then, does this mild winter mean for the wildlife in the area?

The Fish, Wildlife and Parks area biologist, Bruce Sterling believes the mild winter only has minimal, yet positive effects on the wildlife throughout the county.

“The mild winter will give a better survival to both adults and young, mainly because there is a lot more food available for them and they don’t have to exert as much energy trying to find that food like they would in situations with heavy snow,” said Sterling.

With more food available for the animals in the area, they increase their calorie intake, which subsequently helps the survivability in adults, but primarily in fawns and calves. This, Sterling said, is a good thing as it helps with an increase in the animal population throughout the county. The mild winter and increase in population can also raise other landscape questions, such as an increase in predators that could effect the population, however, Sterling said it is too soon to predict what kind of effects the winter will have on these issues.

This winter has been exceedingly abnormal, said Sterling, as typically there would be a couple of inches of snow down on the valley floor and around ten feet of snow once you get into the 6,000 feet elevation range. This year the snow fall is around 60 percent less than what it normally is in Sanders County.

“It’s a good break from the last two previous winters which have been fairly hard so the animals needed a good break and they seem to be having it right now. It’s quite different from last year and it’s good for the critters, it’s certainly not going to hurt them,” said Sterling.

Every spring Sterling conducts a survey to gauge the number of animals in the county to see how many survived the winter and hunting season. The spring survey is based on the green up affect on vegetation. As the vegetation greens up in April, the animals come out of the timber seeking this vegetation, which gives Sterling and his team the opportunity to survey the animals from a helicopter. The only thing the mild winter and low snowfall will affect on the spring survey is the possibility of the team having more ground to cover as the land will be more open due to the low snow levels.

John Hanson, the fisheries biologist for Sanders County said the fish will do fine if there is less snow fall and therefore lower water levels in the river, however, the mild winter will have subtle effects on the fish in the summer with lower water flows in the spring and summer.

“There will be lower flows and usually higher water temperatures so those streams are just going to be a lot lower through the summer which is tough on the fish because there’s just not as much water. It’s just more stress on the fish, but it shouldn’t affect fishing, but their survival can essentially be lower,” said Hanson who added that it is too early to predict what will happen in the warmer months.

Hanson said if it is a warm summer, there will be hot temperatures and lower water levels in the rivers and although there is nothing they can do to prepare for this, he will monitor the water levels in the summer and make closures on the rivers if water temperatures get too high and flows too low.